The 1996 Marin Bobcat Trail is a cromoly (steel) framed rigid mountain bike with 26″ wheels.
It has a Shimano Acera/Alivio drivetrain (3×7) with SRAM GripShift SRT 300i grip shifters (twist to change gear). The brakes are Shimano Acera X cantilever brakes. It came with wheels using Rock Star hubs with Araya GP-710 rims shod in Marin Lite tyres. The bottom bracket is a YST BB-969 which is BSA 68mm (110mm spindle length).
I purchased this bicycle new in 1996. I made good use of it for a few years after buying it but then an interest in cars (and a small garage) meant the bike had a period of 20 years with minimal use before a move to the Oxford area meant I started using it again. It currently serves as my bad weather bike and also my city centre bike (as a slightly tatty 30 year old rigid MTB with a d-lock is unlikely to be a thief target).
Modifications/Additions
- Wheels
- The hubs on the original wheels were quiet initially when I started to use the bike again after its hiatus but after about 6 months they started clicking. Having never serviced hubs before and with only the one bike I decided to purchase a second set of wheels before attempting to service the originals. The new wheels have dual-walled RYDE rims (559×19) and Shimano RM40 hubs. I was able to service the hubs on the original rims so I now use both to be able to switch between tyre type with minimal effort. It actually wasn’t long before I had to service the RM40 hubs in the new wheels – they seemed to push out their grease relatively easily during the summer!
- Tyres
- The original knobbly tyres still had plenty of tread after the hiatus but the condition of the rubber wasn’t at its best and the knobbly tread was noisy and slow on the road, which was what I was mostly riding on now.
- I first swapped the tyres for some Vandorm “Wind” puncture-resistant tyres (26×2.10) with a minimal road tread. The bike was much smoother/quieter on the road with them and actually a lot more stable too.
- When the first post-hiatus winter came around since I was using the bike for transport as well as pleasure now (for shopping and errands) I decided to get some proper winter tyres so as to reduce the risk of breaking any bones when conditions got icy. I found some “New Old Stock” Schwalbe Marathon Winter Plus studded tyres (26×2.15) on ebay. They’re incredibly noisy on dry roads (the noise reminds me of the buzz of high voltage power lines) but have given me confidence to still ride when there’s frost, ice or snow on the roads.
- By the time of the second autumn I was occasionally riding unpaved parts of the Thames Path and along the Port Meadow bank of the Thames which were getting muddy so I decided to get a set of knobbly tyres (the Marathon Winter Plus were best saved for icy conditions). So I also have Schwalbe Tough Tom (26×2.10). The tread is fine but they seem to be tricky to get to seat evenly around the rim.
- The original knobbly tyres still had plenty of tread after the hiatus but the condition of the rubber wasn’t at its best and the knobbly tread was noisy and slow on the road, which was what I was mostly riding on now.
- Pedals
- The pedals lasted about 8 months after I started using the bike again before clicking due to worn bearings. I tried some Hycline aluminium cage-style pedals as a replacement but they didn’t last long before clicking with obvious spindle movement on one side. I have now fitted similar cage-style pedals but made by XLC this time. Since I ride the bike in wet weather occasionally I have fitted strapless toe clips to help keep my shoes from slipping – they seem to work ok.
- Bottom Bracket
- I started getting a little bit of a creak when pedaling but only when cruising – not when pedaling hard or under minimal/no load. I checked the pedals were firm on the cranks, the seat post and seat were well clamped. Also checked steerer and handlebars. That just left the bottom bracket – given it was 30 years old and the bike was getting used in wet weather occasionally unsurprising. I couldn’t find any concrete information on the bracket, other than it being a standard BSA 68mm square taper type.
- I bought tools to remove the cranks and bottom bracket from Aliexpress. I was able to wrangle the drive-side crank off with a bit of effort but the other side wouldn’t budge on first go. I applied some GT85 spray around the spindle and the bracket cups and left overnight. That did help free everything a little, although I had to stand on the spanner for the bottom bracket cups (especially drive side). Upon removing it I found it to be YST BB-969 – probably a 110mm spindle (I measured it at 111mm but the crank ends got a bit chewed up by the puller I used). There was some corrosion in the shell on the drive side so I used a dremel with a brass wire brush attachment to clean it up a little and then sprayed some ACF-50 around in the shell. I decided against going for a more expensive bottom bracket as a replacement and stuck with a cheap one (from Gineyea) – I can just replace it again if it goes as I have the tools now.
- I started getting a little bit of a creak when pedaling but only when cruising – not when pedaling hard or under minimal/no load. I checked the pedals were firm on the cranks, the seat post and seat were well clamped. Also checked steerer and handlebars. That just left the bottom bracket – given it was 30 years old and the bike was getting used in wet weather occasionally unsurprising. I couldn’t find any concrete information on the bracket, other than it being a standard BSA 68mm square taper type.
- Mudguards
- Even if you just ride on dry days there may still be puddles lurking from previous showers, so after starting to use the bike again it wasn’t long before I got some mudguards. I initially got some Rockbros retractable mudguards – they have multiple sliding segments – so I could just extend them when needed for a little bit of protection. But their coverage wasn’t great for properly wet weather and I was a bit limited in how I could position the rear one due to brake calipers (a lot of mudguard sets for mountain bikes these days just don’t seem to fit in very well with the location of the cantilever brakes on this Marin). So I got some slightly wider mudguards (although I still use the Rockbros rear one too just behind the seat tube to give a little extra coverage).
- Pannier Rack
- For the first few months of resuming using the Marin I was happy enough to use a backpack to cart my camera around. As I started to go for longer and faster rides my back would get way too sweaty so it was time for a pannier rack. I went for quite a cheap one – unfortunately the vertical mounts which attach near the rear drop outs foul the seat stays so can’t go straight up which is why the pannier rack is leaning backwards slightly (it works fine for my needs).
- Saddle
- The original saddle is a “Marin comfort” saddle – quite wide and with fairly soft foam. It’s not great for doing longer road rides! I bought a PRO Griffon saddle for it although I’ve now transferred that to the gravel bike and so the Marin now has the Selle Italia X3 Boost which came off that.